Steven Spielberg-Diablo Cody's Tara set for Jan.

In the flood of announcements that followed Diablo Cody’s overnight overexposure, perhaps the most persistent was the bond between the Oscar-adorned Juno screenwriter and Steven Spielberg. If we’re to believe the Hollywood lore, he even considered directing Juno at one point, and before long he had Cody attached as a writer on several of his fledgling projects.

The first of those to pop up, the half-hour Showtime comedy series The
United States of Tara, now has the prime premiere date of Jan. 18,
sandwiched between the season premieres of The L Word and Secret Diary
of a Call Girl. The show stars Toni Collette, currently in theaters
with Towelhead, as a
suburban mother who navigates the customary obstacles along with dissociative-identity disorder. (Get it? The United States of Tara?)

The show, for which Cody wrote the pilot from an idea by Spielberg, has
already lit up message boards with condemnations from displeased mental-health advocates, but maybe
we should wait to see it before we judge it. The first season will be 12 episodes, on par with other Showtime comedy series. For her part, Cody is currently at work on a second comedy for Spielberg, this time said to be a screenplay for a movie
based on another of his ideas. We'll see soon if she can live up to
her new mentor’s unguarded faith.